Nightmare Before Christmas Artwork: Trick or Tree - Paper

Call for price and availability! Enter an extraordinary world filled with wonder, where each holiday has its own town. This is the heartfelt tale of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown.

Bored with the same old tricks and treats, he yearns for something more, and one autumn day stumbles into the magical place called Christmastown! Jack is so taken with the idea of this new holiday that he tries to convince the dark denizens of Halloweentown to help him put on a Merry Christmas. But as his dream to fill Santa¹s shoes unravels, it¹s up to Sally, the lovelorn rag doll, to stitch things back together.

This critically acclaimed film continues to capture imaginations of audiences everywhere with its Academy Award®-nominated stop-motion effects, engaging Grammy®-nominated music, and the genius of Tim Burton.

Having seen the merriment of Christmastown, Jack Skellington decides that, for once, the dark denizens of Halloweentown should be in charge of Christmas. Only his secret admirer, Sally the lovelorn rag doll, wonders if Jack¹s plan to claim Christmas is as misbegotten as it sounds.

The Artwork

This unique stop-motion animated film, which took over 140 artists and technicians to produce, deserves an extraordinary presentation specially-created triptych.

Triptychs originated in ancient Rome as a writing tablet with three hinged waxed leaves, later evolving into three hinged images used to decorate buildings, especially churches. This edition, ³Trick or Tree² recreates Sequence 101 (left panel), Sequence 407 (center panel) and Sequence 206 (right panel) from Tim Burton¹s Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). This special triptych is offered in two versions:

A paper edition consisting of three deckle-edged giclée prints ands mats printed with the pattern from Sally¹s rag-tag dress, and a canvas edition,

Sally was not part of the delightfully twisted tale¹s origin as a Dr. Seuss-like poem written by Tim Burton in the early 1980s. When the poem was developed as a film, it was clear that the lead character, Jack, needed a soul mate. The solution was Sally, a Frankenstein-like rag doll, sewn together from mismatched scraps by the Evil Scientist, Dr. Finklestein.

Screenwriter Caroline Thompson explained that Sally ³is Jack¹s truest friend. Only she understands what Jack is going through because she, too, dreams of something else from life. They are very much alike, but there is one crucial difference: while Jack¹s dilemma gives Nightmare Before Christmas its plot, Sally¹s gives it its heart.²

From the earliest drafts and drawings of the original poem, Jack Skellington was the central character. ³I love Jack,² Tim Burton said. ³He is a bit misguided and his emotions take over, but he gets everybody excited.² Nothing illustrates this better than the triptych¹s central image, from the film¹s ³The Town Meeting Song² number, in which the Pumpkin King scares up support for his vision of Christmas among the other creepy citizens of Halloweentown. Nearly 230 actual sets were designed and constructed for this cinematic masterpiece. 227 puppets painstakingly created from foam with a machined armature inside of actual production resulted in the most elaborate stop-motion film ever created, with unique characters unlike any ever seen. The result has been screams of delight from audiences everywhere.

These character images were created using the fine art printing process of color reproduction known as giclée. In this process, a computer-based digital file is printed by spraying millions of pixel-sized drops of ink per second onto premium-quality, acid-free paper with an enhanced printer, specially modified for fine art reproduction.

Based on actual film moments from Tim Burton¹s Nightmare Before Christmas, a hand oil-painted reproduction was digitally scanned and modified to create both the paper and canvas editions.

This triptych is unique as it can be hung on the wall or displayed on a table or shelf. The Mat has two hinged side panels printed with a whimsical pattern from Sally's rag-tag dress. The frame is gothic-looking, made from tough, wrap-resistant finger-jointed spruce with wavy accent lines evocative of this spooky tale. Each framed piece is backed with a printed pattern.